Duniya (2007 film)

Duniya is a 2007 Indian Kannada-language action drama film directed by Duniya Soori (in his directorial debut) and produced by T. P. Siddaraju under Samy Associates. The film stars debutants Duniya Vijay and Rashmi, alongside Rangayana Raghu, Kishore and Yogesh.

Duniya was released on 23 February 2007 and became a successful venture at box office. Due to the film, Vijay and Suri came to be known as Duniya Vijay and Duniya Suri among the masses.

Plot
Shivalinga a.k.a. Shivu, an innocent villager who works as a manual laborer in stone quarry realizes that his mother is seriously ill. He gets his mother to Bangalore for treatment, but his mother dies and he is unable to arrange finances for her funeral. He manages to pay with the only ornament he had in order to carry out the funeral of his mother. With his inability to procure a tomb-stone for his mother's grave, Shivu leaves the city walking without any money, devastated.

While on his way he comes across a girl (Poornima) who is kidnapped and the abductors try to rape her. Shivu saves her and gets her to the orphanage where she is staying. The warden of the institute misunderstands the situation and believes that Poornima is in love with Shivu and had eloped with him. The warden asks the girl to leave the institution immediately.

Shivu wants to fulfill her wish to continue study and decides to support her education. But apart from a strong body he does not have any qualities to survive in this world. The circumstances make him work for the underworld. In the process his peers in the underworld have an eye on Purima, the love for Poornima makes Shivu to fight with mob leaders. In the process the kingpin is killed. Police wrongly believe that Shivu is responsible for the murders. Unable to see the suffering of Shivu at the hands of society, police, and the underworld, Poornima calls him to meet her outside the city. Without his knowledge, she gives him sweets laced with poison and she too consumes the same to end the chapter.

Cast

 * Vijay as Shivalinga a.k.a. Shivu
 * Rashmi as Poornima
 * Rangayana Raghu as Satyanna
 * Kishore as ACP Umesh Kumar
 * Mico Nagaraj as Raghupathi
 * Yogesh as 'Loose' Maadha
 * Lokesh as Praveen
 * Sai Sunil as Sappe
 * Prasanna as Petrol
 * Kaddipudi Chandru as Dopu
 * Mohan Juneja as Gravedigger (uncredited)

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by V. Manohar, while the musical score was composed by Sadhu Kokila. The lyrics were written by V. Nagendra Prasad, V. Manohar and Yograj Bhat.

Reception
Chitraloka wrote that "Soori directed “Duniya is a must watch for all section of film fans who wants to see something different and authentic." R. G. Vijayasarathy of Rediff gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Soori has used all the commercial elements to make the film appealing to all the sections of the audience. Besides the stark reality in presentation, it is his writing talent that wins the battle for Duniya." In his another review for IANS, R. G. Vijayasarathy gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Duniya is a film that should not be missed as it is a top class presentation. It is strongly recommended for film buffs who want to see different type of films."

Box office
Duniya completed 150 days of screening. The film ran for more than 25 weeks in some centres, thereby becoming a silver jubilee film.